Saudi Arabia is making intensive efforts to reassure foreigners living and working in the kingdom, reports Rasheed Abou-Alsamh from Jeddah Westerners in Saudi Arabia are still jumpy a month after American Paul Johnson was beheaded in Riyadh on 18 June, and after the head of Al-Qaeda in the kingdom, Abdul-Aziz Al-Muqrin, was gunned down by Saudi security forces at a petrol station along with three accomplices on the same day. The elimination of Al-Muqrin has brought what many Westerners fear is only a temporary lull in the violence aimed at foreigners in the kingdom that has already claimed more than 80 lives since the beginning of the year. Although many Westerners have already sent their families home for the summer, and others have moved to nearby Bahrain and Dubai, some are staying put in the kingdom, waiting to see what will happen next. "I'm staying here with my wife until early next year," one Briton living in Jeddah told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Having said that, I know of many Westerners who have shipped all of their belongings home and are just living out of a suitcase. They're working the remaining six months in their contracts, then they're out of here." A 16-year veteran of living in Saudi Arabia, the Briton said that he believed that some of the shootings of Westerners in Riyadh had been done not by Al-Qaeda members but by unaffiliated extremists who were just using the current instability to have a go at Westerners. "Most of us are worried about the randomness of the killings. We fear the unpredictable guy who pops up and just shoots us. That's why we're all thinking of leaving," he said. Because of this growing fear in the expatriate community, the Saudi government has finally moved to reassure the foreigners living in the country that it is doing all it can to ensure their security. An extraordinary meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Interior Minister Prince Naif Ibn Abdul-Aziz, senior diplomats from 19 countries and community leaders was held in Jeddah on 27 June. The meeting, which lasted several hours, was a frank exchange of ideas and suggestions, according to those who attended. Ways of improving security were discussed and US Ambassador James Oberwetter said that the setting up of a security hotline was proposed as well as foreign assistance in training Saudi security forces. Gene Heck, the head of the American Businessmen's Group in Riyadh, who attended the meeting with the foreign minister, was upbeat in his assessment of the American community's reaction to the recent violence. "All the major US companies are still here. Only a few small firms have left," Heck told the Weekly. "It's true that some Americans have moved their families to Bahrain, but I think it's only a temporary measure." The British manager of a major housing compound in Jeddah was also optimistic, saying their occupancy levels were remarkably stable. He admitted, though, that most Westerners were reviewing the security situation in the kingdom on a daily basis, and planning accordingly. "People are moving between compounds, with a drift into what people perceive as better protected compounds," said the manager. But he also admitted that there were many empty five-bedroom villas on his compounds, and a waiting list for one- and two-bedroom apartments as executives send their families home and no longer need to live in large homes. The compound manager also noted that many non-Western foreigners, like Egyptians, Pakistanis and Arabs with Canadian and US nationalities, were moving off compounds and into private villas. "I think that after the recent attacks on housing compounds, many non-Western foreigners feel it's safer to live off compounds. And they can do that as they easily blend in with the local population," said the manager. Despite the pep talk from some in the expatriate community, the 50,000 Americans and Britons living in the kingdom still feel they are the primary targets of the Al-Qaeda group, and fear more attacks are coming. Already, more than 100 American families have reportedly left Saudi Aramco, the kingdom's oil producer, and some firms have had to resort to danger pay to entice Westerners to stay. British Aerospace is paying all of its 2,400 employees in the kingdom an extra �1,000 a month, while US military contractors are paying their employees a 25 per cent premium of their base pay. The Saudi government realises just how critical Western know-how is to the country's continued development, and after what seemed like months of inaction, is finally getting some results in its war against the terrorists. What many Westerners saw as hesitation and weakness on the part of the ruling Al-Saud family was in fact a wariness of possibly triggering a civil war if it cracked down too hard on the militants. With this in mind, the government has adopted a policy of killing extremists when necessary while also offering the hand of reconciliation. One such effort at reconciliation was the one-month amnesty, announced by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in a televised speech on 23 June, to all militants who turn themselves in. It has already produced results: A low level militant, Saaban Al-Shihri, turned himself in on 25 June, and number 19 on a list of 26 most wanted fugitives in the kingdom, Othman Al- Amri, surrendered on 28 June. Jamal Khashoggi, former editor in chief of the daily Al- Watan newspaper, and now press adviser to Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom Prince Turki Al-Faisal, said in a phone interview from London that he was optimistic that the Saudi government was gaining the upper hand. "Security officials told me that militants break easily in prison, even without being pressed hard. They realise their mistakes when they are taken away from their network and mentors," Khashoggi said. "The government wants to understand why they are fighting, what makes them tick." Still, many Westerners are wary of Saudi security forces themselves, especially after it was leaked that beheaded American hostage Paul Johnson had been abducted after being stopped at a fake police checkpoint on his way home from work. This wariness recently caused one American in Riyadh to drive through a legitimate Saudi police checkpoint without stopping, which led the US Embassy in Riyadh to issue a warning message on 24 June to all US citizens in the kingdom advising them to stop at all police checkpoints or risk being arrested. Khashoggi doesn't believe that Al-Muqrin and his cohorts had help from within security forces to kidnap Johnson, although he does admit that they could have used cars painted to look like real police patrols. "This cannot be true. You can't lend your patrol car to your brother to drive around in and not get into trouble," he said. "It is possible to use fake police cars to set up a phony checkpoint." Still, Saudi Aramco and other firms that are considered high-risk targets in the Eastern Province are not taking any chances. One Aramco compound in Dhahran is replacing an entire wire fence with a concrete wall, and Aramco is trying to hire Saudi female security guards by offering them a fairly good salary of 8,500 riyals a month ($2,266). Most male security guards make only 1,500 riyals a month, not enough to make them want to risk their lives if confronted by terrorists. The Petroleum Centre in Al-Khobar, an office complex housing offices of many foreign oil companies, and which was attacked by Al-Qaeda militants on 29 May, is now insisting that all people working there visibly wear their ID cards at all times, and is installing high-tech electronic locks on all doors. Anyone wanting entry to any of the buildings will need to have a security card, and an individual's card will only allow access to the building they actually work in. "This is a move away from depending solely on human security guards, who can be shot and killed, to other forms of electronic security that just adds another layer of safety," a security expert in Dammam told the Weekly. One British journalist working for a local English-language daily in the kingdom told the Weekly that he had been told by Western security experts that Al-Qaeda would keep up its campaign of terrorising Westerners in Saudi Arabia, with fresh attacks likely in late August and September, just when many Westerners would be coming back from their summer vacations. "That would be the final nail in the coffin for many Westerners," said the journalist, predicting the situation could further deteriorate by December. Dire predictions aside, all foreigners in the kingdom are waiting to see just how effective the Saudi government will be in foiling further attacks. That in the end will decide whether confidence can be restored in the country, or whether the country as we know it will be unravelled forever.
